SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

Yesterday, City Hall and its vicinity was transformed into a wonderland with the spectacular and dazzling array of colourful floats in the Chingay Parade 2009! Though the annual show is for ticket holders, it is still a parade for all as thousands of Singaporeans lined the pavements of the roads to catch a glimpse of each of these wonderful floats. My Dear and I were among the crowd on the road pavements yesterday, partaking in the spectacular extravaganza. Initially, I tried to take photos of the parade but later found that due to the trotting action of the paraders, most of the photos turned out to be blurred, hence I captured the footage of yesterday parade on video for posterity.

My Dear and I had a wonderful Friday (30 Jan 09) evening. We visited the Singapore Flyer which has just recently reopened after a technical glitch which left many stranded in the middle of the sky for close to 7 hours. After the breathtaking ride, we had a hearty meal at Popeye and proceeded to watch the Chingay procession 2009 in just next to the Floating Platform! Do stay tuned to my Singapore Flyer special and Chingay special coming up on this blog real soon! Plus: if you do not have tickets to Chingay 2009, fret not, proceed to the street just beside the Floating Platform and you can have the same view as paid audience of the same great thing. Fantastic right? Also you can visit the River HongBao 2009 carnival just next door if you have not been there yet. Beside the Chingay Parade tomorrow, there will be the Singapore's largest street party from 10 pm to 3 am tomorrow night: City Alive! happening in front of City Hall along St Andrew Road, featuring DJ Sassy Pandez. And I will

Chinese New Year this year is the year of the 'niu' (Chinese word for Cow). So does this mean that this year is the year of the cow? Why is it that media rather called the year of the 'niu' as the year of the ox? Why is it not the year of the bull or the year of the cattle? I am quite confused by the above similar terms of the bovine. However, my questions were 'allayed' after a visit to the Singapore Philatetic Musuem on the second day of Chinese New Year with my Dear. Here is the quick fact: 'Cattle' is the formal name for cows. An 'ox' is basically a trained cow and a castrated bull. A female cow or cow of unknown gender is referred to as a 'cow' while a male cow is called a 'bull'. The Chinese word for cow ('niu') does not distinguish one bovine creature from another. So the Year of the 'Ox' can be called the Year of the 'Cow' or the Year of the 'Bull' or the Year of the 'Cattle'. Intere

The Istana, Singapore's official residence for her President is always open to the public on public holidays. My Dear and I visited Istana on its open house on 27 Feb 09, the second day of the Chinese New Year. We reached Istana at around 5pm, as it was one of our last stops on a day filled with visits of musuems on their open houses too. The crowd to Istana has reduced significantly by this time of the day, as evidenced by the queue line at the entrance of the Istana. Security was watertight at Istana, needlessly to say and visitors were subject to screenings of both bodies and belongings. The Istana is open free to Singaporean citizens and Permanent Residents while foreigners have to pay a nominal charge of $1; with all proceeds going to charity. There were also many make-shift stalls set up in Istana, selling a buffet of memorabilia with all proceeds going to charity organizations. The Istana is like a giant park with vast sprawling compounds. Familes, relatives and friends hav

For day 2 of Chinese New Year, which was yesterday, 27 Jan 09, my Dear and I first visited the Peranakan Musuem, then proceeded to visit the Singapore Philateic Musuem and the Istana. As usual, there were many sights and sounds happening in these 3 places of interest (openhouse to the public, except for the $1 charge for non-Singaporeans to the Istana) that I would dedicate separate posts on each of them soon, so do stay tuned! My Dear and I witnessed a lion dance right at the doorsteps of the Singapore Philateic Musuem:

My Dear and I visited the River Hongbao 2009 carnival held at the Marina floating platform (for the first time) yesterday night. Upon our arrival, we were mesmerized by the scores of red lanterns suspended at the grand entrance. The sight was simply awesome and I could easily discern that the River HongBao carnival this year might be the best ever organized though the budget for the event has shrank from the usual $1.5 million to the current $1.4 million in view of the economic recession. The location at the Marina floating platform gave a magical feel to the carnival due to the confluence of the bright colors, the bustling crowd and the splendid scenery of the Singapore River. All lanterns which were exhibited in the carnival were quite novice, unlike those I have seen in the past River HongBao carnivals. Particularly, I loved the life-sized lanterns of the Chinese warriors, cannons, carts, horse depicting the figurines used in Chinese Chess. It was so unique to me! There were of cour

There exists many automated tools for the calculation of mortage loan such as this website . However, I believe having a detailed mathematical understanding for the calculation of mortage payments is paramount as undeniably, this formula plays such a key role in the lives of many. The formula is: M = P [ i(1 + i) ^n ] / [ (1 + i)^n - 1] To illustrate the working of this formula. Say for a $100,000 mortgage at 5% compounded monthly for 15 years, we would first solve for i as i = 0.05 / 12 = 0.004167 and n as 12 x 15 = 180 monthly payments Next we would solve for (1 + i)^n = (1.004167)^180 using the xy key on the calculator, which yields 2.11383 Now our formula reads M = P [ i(2.11383)] / [ 2.11383- 1] which simplifies to M = P [.004167 x 2.11383] / 1.11383 or M = $100,000 x 0.00791 = $791.81

I woke up at 9.30 am today , surprised that I was not feeling too lethargic despites the fact that I slept close to 4 am last night. I must be feeling enthralled as today is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year! I ate the 'poh-piah' (spring roll) deliciously and freshly made by my mother as breakfast and popped some Chinese New Year snacks into my mouth as a supplement. After that, I caught the repeat television telecast of the Chinese New Year variety show, first broadcasted on Chinese New Year eve, on Channel 8. For this annual variety show, the part which I anticipated watching yearly is the part on astrology for the 12 different animals of the Chinese Zodiac sign. This year, the astrologer was not the usual guy we see yearly. Hmm, this year, the astrologer gave quite a very bad astrology forecast for most of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac sign, befitting a year of the economic crisis? Anyway, I do not believe in all these talk. If it happens that my astrology for

The time is now 3.08 a.m Singapore time. I am not asleep as I have just returned home an hour ago. Where was I earlier? Yes, if you have guessed correctly, I was in the thick of the Singapore Chinese New Year action, right in the heart of Chinatown. Chinatown was a sea of people and it was a chore to walk amidst the thousands of people who have congregated there. It was still orderly in Chinatown as the police has set up demarcation zones to confine and streamline the crowd. As some public areas were used for such demarcation purposes, the walking areas became even smaller. I was in Chinatown about 9 p.m, after a hearty reunion dinner with my family. Chinatown is the place to be in, if you want to savour Singapore Chinese New Year in its fullness. I entered Chinatown from Outram Park MRT station. To my surprise, the Pasar Malam (a public bazar) which is an annual fixture was not there.... a casualty of the economic downturn? Entering Chinatown from Outram MRT station really belied what

Yesterday afternoon, I put in close to 4 hours, spring cleaning my cupboard. Actually there was not much unwanted stuff to dispose of as being a simple man with simple needs, I always take no more than what I need, own no more than the most basic things in life. Luxury items are few and out of my priorities, though at times, I do indulge in some treats else life would have been meaningless. I took out all my paraphernalia from the shelves, drawers of my cupboard onto my floor and within minutes, I was confounded by the raft of my personal belongings...it was such a mess! I dusted, swept and wet-clean my cupboard, leaving it to dry, while I sorted out the array of my belongings. There were not much things to dispose of as I looked through each and every of the little items. There were some relieving moments as I finally found an item I have been searching for some time: an ornament containing a rare stamp bearing some words for thought, given to me by one of the bosses I have served. Th

There is now a novel way of getting around Sentosa: Segways. Segways are quite common in Europe but they are not commonly seen in Singapore though I have often witness foreign executives from other offices riding on these environmentally-friendly transport to get to the different places in the giant office complex where I work in. To rent a segway, here is the breakdown of the rental charges: 3 min: $10 40 min: $35 60 min: $45 Wow, this mode of transport is not cheap!

Yes! The Singapore Chinese New Year long weekends commence from today! Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday .... 4 days of rest for most Singaporeans! But we must not discount the fact that not all Singaporeans are so lucky to have this continual stretch of rest from work. Some services like retails sales, restaurants, transports must still continue to operate during the holidays. I read about how some business choose to open on the second or even the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year in order to capture a slice of the holidaying market, so as to improve their business which has already been hit by the economic crisis. For Singaporeans who are guaranteed to have this 4 days off work, some have already applied for additonal days of leave to 'interface' with this long weekend, the result: A super long weekend! This group of Singaporeans may comprise of people who just want to be away from work, partying in the CNY festive mood and Singaporeans leveraging on the CNY long wee

Singaporeans are glued to the televisions today for it is a very important day for Singaporeans. It is Budget Day and the budget as unveiled by the Finance Minister Singapore taps for the first time in the history of Singapore the National reserves for a S$20.5b economic stimulus plan! Yes, S$20,500,000, 000 resilence package!

If there is such an island wide in blogging in Singapore, the Association of Bloggers Singapore could look into introducing blogging as a cocurricular activity in Singapore Schools.

Just two days ago, I blogged about the newly formed Association of Bloggers (Singapore), led by Ms Jayne Goh, the author of the East Coast Life blog. Today, I ran a check on the internet to uncover the ground sentiments of fellow bloggers in the cyberspace. As what I have anticipated, the idea of an association of bloggers drew a flurry of criticism from the blogging community. Some bloggers questioned the purpose of the association, others queried the high membership fees, and a high number was completely skeptical of the success of the association. I concurred with what Ms Jayne Goh has commented about the local blogging scene: it is far too disorganized! At this juncture, I would like to share with readers my blogging experience: As a blogger who commenced blogging just two years ago, I could still remember my first foray into the blogging world. Like many others, I set up a very simple blogspot account and started to do some simple writing of my life daily. As I continued to blog o

Finally, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th US President less than 10 hours ago! The world embraces Obama with open arms and laps up the change, which Obama advocates, embodies and personifies. It is encouraging to witness the timely arrival of a change leader against the backdrop of a global economic meltdown. The world awaits to see the change Obama promises to deliver for the world.

I enjoy visiting the NTUC supermarket these days, the days leading to the Chinese New Year. It is the only time of the year where one will witness huge crowds of people congregating on every festive item on sales at the supermarket. The cacophony generated by the maddening crowd of people together with the Chinese New Year music blasting at top volumes from the radio liven up the festive shopping experience. Mandarin oranges are the enduring fruits during Chinese New Year. I learnt from a salesman just some days ago from a visit to the supermarket that there are two types of mandarin oranges: 蕉橘 (jiao ju) and 卢橘 (lu ju). Jiao ju mandarin oranges have thick and coarse skin while lu ju mandarin oranges have thinner and smoother skin. Between the two, I prefer lu ju not just because its skin is easier to tear, I find that at many instances, the flesh of the orange is sweeter and does not dry up that fast as compared to jiao ju. It seems that there is a myriad of things to learn if one wan

The furore caused by top civil servant Tan Yong Soon's "cooking holiday" continues to rage on today. This brought to my mind another man who has unfortunately found himself to be the talk of the town last month: Steven Yeo, the General Manager of the Singapore Flyer, who has since resigned after the flyer ground to a halt for close to 7 hours last month. Before the assuming of the post at Singapore Flyer, Steven Yeo was the deputy CEO of the Singapore Sports Council. As such he was also a top civil servant before. Coming back to Tan Yong Soon, who has also authored a book called "Living the Singapore Dream" , I must admit that he must be feeling very stressful these days for being the talk of the town. Can you imagine if you were Tan Yong Soon now, how would you feel? being the centre of unenviable attraction of the whole nation? Has Tan Yong Soon done something very very serious to merit such an inordinate amount of backlash from the cyberworld and ordina

Ms Jayne Goh, the author of East Coast Singapore blog has formed the Association of Bloggers (Singapore) ! I hope under Ms Jayne's leadership, Singapore's very own association of bloggers can develop to be a leading think tank which can help to shape the policies of Singapore.

Though Singapore is a tiny country, it is regretful many Singaporeans have still not been to the interesting places on this little island. We often hear Singaporeans bemoaning that Singapore has nothing much to offer, besides the dozens of shopping centres in the city/orchard area. This is a hasty conclusion. Singapore has an array of interesting places and events it can offer to Singaporeans and visitors. Follow my blog and I will show you the slew of interesting places I have visited on this little island. You may click on the label ‘Places’ and ‘Events’ in my blog for a writeup of places I have visited and events I have partaken in this little country! Being a local nature buff, my quest for unexplored natural parks in Singapore (parks hitherto unvisited by me) led me to Labrador Park. My Dear and I set foot on Labrador Park last Saturday, our first visit of the park despites having lived on this little island for years! Little wonder Labrador Park is hitherto not as well known to S

A 101% fictional story: The strong winds continue to pound little Singapore today (apart from this sentence, the rest of the story is just pure fiction!) and sweepers are having an increasing workload sweeping additional thousands of fallen leaves and as mentioned in Part 1 of the story, fallen hair from humans! Scientists have decoded that the tonnes of fallen hair found in the refuse collected come not only from human, a few good percentage of hairs came from animals like cats and dogs.. it seems that little animals are affected by the strong winds too. Scientists have also established that a good 10% of human hair found in the debris come not from the hair. In-depth analyses of the DNA of these hairs revealed that these hair are armpit hairs and fine moustache hairs. "No wonder some of these hair stink!" Mr Alamak, a sweeper cried in agony upon hearing the unpleasant truth. "I thought these hairs come from people who do not wash hair at all, now knowing the truth,

My Dear and I visited Labrador Park yesterday 17 Jan 09. It was our first time there at Labrador Park, a park which was not commonly known to many Singaporeans. Even for a street-wise guy like me, I still do not know its existence till recently. There we went.. to Labrador Park. It is a park unlike many others, for it is a gem of a park which combines rich historical past, marine and corral biodiversity with splendid waters, winds and scenary. We were quite lucky to catch sight of an interesting weather phenomenon (see picture). There were some gaps among the thick overcast clouds, sending the rays of the blazing hot sun in amazing scattering to the sea. It looks like the arrival of a divine being to Singapore! (Visit to Labrador Park: to be continued)

The annual festive parade of the year, Chingay is hitting the street on 31 Jan 09! On that splendid night, beautiful and simply amazing floats will be aplenty! Having been to some of the previous Chingay parades, I must admit whenever I see those floats, I find myself being transported to Wonderland.... no wonder that is the theme for this year Chingay parade! How nice Wonderland will be.... void of all the mundane problems that beset us! But life is no wonderland, there are always challenges in store for us to overcome. With the overcoming of each challenge, we grow wiser and more experienced. To take a look at some of these awesome floats, please visit this website . (dun worry, the website is normal website, just that its URL is of a non-standard format).

The Singapore Hair Loss Support Group has issued a Code Red warning to balding Singaporeans living in the island about the gusts of strong winds averaging 30km to 40 km per hour which have been hitting Singapore almost every second for the past one week. Chairman of the group, Dr Hairy Kok, in a statement issued to the The Hairy Times said, "The winds that have been blowing non-stop in Singapore are unprecedented in scale and magnitude! Never have the hair of balding Singaporeans been threatened so seriously!" Noting in agreement, Mr Harry, a member of the group, said, "I have been suffering from thin hair already. These days, I just dashed out of home towards the bus stop, to minimise the duration my hair is being exposed to the strong gust. Haiz, what an unfortunate thing these strong winds have come! New Year is coming so soon! I need my hair to face my relatives, please don't blow them away!" Even Singaporeans with a thick coat of hair is not spared. Mr Hair

For the past week, Singapore has been hit with a cold spell, sending temperatures down to 24 degrees and lower. To make matters worse, the winds have been blowing day and night. Not the mild breeze that are felt more often in Singapore, the winds that have been blowing these days here in Singapore average 30 to 40 km per hour, almost twice the speed of the winds usually felt! I dread being in the open these days. My hair will be blown and ‘savaged’ by the strong winds! The winds are cold and it is definitely not a pleasant feeling to be greeted by them. One is prone to catch the flu bug more easily standing right in the passage of such winds. Singapore is a hot and humid country, while cool weather is definitely welcome and much relished by Singaporeans, the weather these days is an ‘overkill’! I do not mind the cold weather, the days the sun goes hiding amidst the clouds, but not the cold winds. Winds will just aggravate the feeling of coldness.. one will feel even colder when there a

I was amused yet concerned when I read the above headline of the Yahoo news today. No, I was not concerned on the content of the news: another senseless war against the innocent (as I am always concerned about it), I am amused at the headline itself. ‘Bin laden’, everyone knows this notorious name belongs to the terrorist chief Osama Bin Laden. However to have an international headline “ Bin Laden urges…” is a joke, as ‘Bin laden’ is not a name at all! ‘Bin laden’ just means ‘son of Laden (father)’, so this term is not a name at all! I can well understand the basis behind this erroneous name as in Western names, the surname is always placed at the back of the name, e,g Thomas Smith, the surname is Smith, name: Thomas. For Chinese, the surname is in front of the name, e.g. Tan Ah Kow, the surname is Tan, name: Ah Kow. However, for a Muslim, there is no surname at all! Take for e.g the terrorist chief, ‘Osama Bin Laden’: ‘Osama’ is the name of the terrorist, ‘bin’ just mean ‘son’ (‘bint

Dear reader, Many Thanks for visiting my humble blog! I will TRY to update my blog everyday and bring you the LATEST , UP- TO -DATE and MOST HAPPENING places, events and news in Singapore everyday, as I am like many Singaporeans, juggling between work, life and many other committments. Hope you find my blog interesting and continue to stay tuned to this blog, Thanks! I would like to do a little survey on you, ya, you, my precious readers. Would appreciate very much if you can tell me your 1)age 2)country of residence 3) male/female 4) hopefully your name too if you don't mind for me to get a sense of the profile of the readers in my blog so that I can tailor to the different needs and expectations of my readers (my customers hehe)! Many Thanks! Do drop a note on what you want to see here, ya right here in this blog, and I will try to check the places you want to as best as I could... especially so for international visitors to my blog who may be curious to visit Singapore

The Chinese drama serial, “Little Nonya’ ended its run on Channel 8 last week. It was the Chinese drama serial with the highest viewership in the past 15 years! The whole of Singapore became ‘nonya-crazy’ after the show started to hit airwaves. There was an increased appreciation of the nonya culture overnight and nonya food and related items were selling like hotcakes everywhere in Singapore. The show has its fair share of critics too, criticizing the plot of the serial. I fall in neither the supporter nor the critic camp as I have not watched an entire episode before. The longest viewing time I have ever had was about 10 minutes (as I was figuring out what the craze was about the show) before I decided enough was enough and there went my television …… Off. There was nothing spectacular or dramatic about the show, from what I know. The basic ingredients for the winning formula of a Singapore TV drama is always the same: 1) Great looking artistes as the protagonists or main cast 2) A c

Another day has just passed.... I believe the most important things to manage in life is time, health and people. I was irritated just an hour ago, waiting for the bus which did not seem to come any sooner. It was a real waste of time, waiting for bus or other public transport. In general, the time spent on waiting, be it for bus, MRT, people, in the traffic just adds up to become days! We spend a large portion of our time waiting. To illustrate, take an average of 30 min per day spent on waiting, that would be equivalent to 183 hrs: slightly more than 9 days of waiting for a calender year. Say we spend 60 years waiting for 30 min per day, that would amount to 540 days, 1.5 years of our lives waiting! Isn't that a sheer waste of our life .... waiting? and this waiting is not waiting for success or for other noble goals, else it will be worth the wait. This waiting I mentioned here is waiting in a super time consuming manner!

‘One eye dragon’ is not the appellation of a mythical animal that has been discovered in Singapore recently. It is the nickname given to a dangerous gunman. One eye dragon was hanged on Friday 9 Jan 2009 for a brutal murder case he has committed. In a surprising move, One eye dragon turned his heart to Buddhism during his final days in jail (and in life) and instructed his family to donate his organs to the needy. One eye dragon was said to be stoic towards his death. One of the recipients of One eye dragon’s organs was retail magnate, Tang Wee Sung who was convicted in court last year of trying to buy a kidney. A donated organ, a retail magnate and a brutal gunman, these serve as fodder for the local evening press and coffeeshop talk. This real life story that unfolds in Singapore seems so surreal in our country which has prided itself on having one of the safest homes in the world; in fact this real life story seems more suitable for the plot of a typical Hong Kong serial drama. Ju

My Dear and I went trekking at Macritchie Reservoir, the part off Venus drive towards tree top walk. This was my second visit to Macritchie Nature Reserve. For the write-up of my first visit, please visit my earlier posts: Tree top walk Tree top walk (part 2) This second visit was even more exciting than the first! The natives of the Macritchie nature reserves came out in full droves from their 'homes' to welcome us! There was a monkey crawling threateningly along the bars of the tree top walk towards us, less than 15 cm away from us. We could not turn back as the tree top walk rangers did not allow walkers to retreat. Thus we braced ourselves walking towards the monkey, keeping our food and drinks out of sight of the primate's view. Luckily the monkey was not interested in us else a monkey's attacks would be unimaginable. Do not fool around with the Singapore monkeys in our nature reserve! These primates are not innocent monkeys like you have read. These primates h

Every year, in line with Chinese New Year, Singapore will organize similarly themed events during the festive period. For this year, be sure to catch the following events: 1) Chinese New Year Chinatown Lightup (already covered in my blog) 2) Chinese New Year Countdown @ Chinatown 3) River Hong Bao @ Marina Bay 4) Chingay 5) City Alive! 6) Yuan Xiao Jie festival I am targeting to visit all of the above events and will bring updates to this blog! so watch out for them here in this blog! Chinatown is brimming with people these days, as many Singaporeans are busy clearing their old stuff residing in their home, sprucing up their homes and buying Chinese New Year goodies. One question, are more shoppers in Chinatown buying or are merely just 'window shopping'?

A survey of the "Top 10 Singaporean Dreams and Goals" released by OCBC Bank on 9 Jan 09 shows that starting a family, settling down and homes are the nation's top three dreams this year. The top 10 list for year 2009 is as follows: 1) Family and Children 2) Settling down/Starting a family 3) Houses and home 4) Making money 5) Retirement 6) Seeing the world 7) Automobile 8) Good health 9) Starting a business 10) Self-improvement On the back of the current economic meltdown, making money is no longer in the top 3 of Singaporean dreams and goals, it is back to basics, the basic of society: Family. What I find perplexing is that health and self-improvement ranks on the lower rungs of the list. Personally, I do believe health is the most important as without it, we cannot do anything. Next would be self-improvement, an area which pervades all endeavours of life. My personal list is as follows: 1) Good health 2) Self-improvement 3) Settling down/Starting a family 4) Ho

Just 2 weeks ago, I was shooting photos of some christmas decorations hanging off the roof of Paragon shopping centre. With the coming Chinese New Year, Paragon shopping centre was quick to recoat itself in red: the festive colour of Chinese New Year! Chinese lanterns now replace the christmas decorations. The 'hanging' concept is similar for the design of the two festivals, but it is quite a refreshing take!

I was at the Orchard MRT station this evening and what a chaos it was in there! As Singaporeans knew, Orchard Road is currently undergoing a revamp, with the Ion Orchard shopping mall coming up an d some other major shopping malls getting a relift of its facade. The chaos at the underground MRT station was caused by the reopening of an exit (the former exit directly to Wisma Atria shopping centre). The exit reopened but what a confusion it caused to the passengers exiting. Think many thought the exit still leads to Wisma Atria but as the sign indicated, the same old exit now points to Tangs shopping centre. The exit was always quite narrow, worsening the queues and the chaos. There were some men in uniform directing traffic ('human traffic'). Never mind the mess, the authorities will sort it out soon. What I am interested is what Ion at Orchard shopping mall and other new shopping malls in Orchard Road will offer to shoppers. I hope they will offer something new and unique

Chingay falls on 31 Jan 09. What happens after the Chingay parade? The answer: City Alive!

An apology to all readers, I have turned on moderation for comments made to my blog posts just some days ago. The reason is that as my blog grows in popularity, it has become a site for spamming and unwarranted advertising. Thus to curb such phenomenon, I have turned on the moderation for comments made to my blog posts. Do continue to comment, all your comments will be published unless they are really objectionable. Many Thanks for your support to my humble website, I am going to sleep soon after a long long day....

For many Singaporeans, weekends are commonly spent squeezing with the incessant throngs of humans in the shopping malls, in the theatres or in the restaurants. An outing in the town on weekends is supposed to be a reprieve away from work for many, but the cacophony and the human jams experienced on such an outing often tire Singaporeans more than they actually heal them. Heading down to shopping malls on weekends may be understandable as the malls offer cool relief and comfort from the country’s unbearable heat, an enduring feature in Singapore. Though Singapore has a slate of shopping centres to choose from, the ritual of hopping from one shopping mall to another on weekends can be boring after sometimes for a number of us. This finally leads to some Singaporeans easily dismissing Singapore as boring as in their perception, there is nothing much to do on weekends except visiting shopping malls. However, there is an irony here: just as these Singaporeans dread the boredom of going to s